Every vehicle owner in Michigan is issued a license plate by the Michigan Department of Transportation. Two types of license plates are available: standard license plates and specialty license plates. Most vehicles have standard license plates. Specialty plates are reserved for vehicles that are owned by groups or organizations.
There are several ways to complete a license plate application following the purchase of your vehicle:
- Fill out an application in-person at the Michigan Department of Transportation
- Use the Michigan DOT website to fill out and submit an application online
- Send a mail request to the Michigan DOT for your license plate
These same methods can be used to do a license plate search for an unknown vehicle.
Ways To Do A License Plate Lookup
There are many different reasons you may need to look up the owner of a vehicle. Fortunately, there are also easy ways to do this.
The Michigan Department of Transportation keeps all registration records of the vehicles in the state. You can file a request for information in-person, online, or via mail. You can also make a phone request by calling 517-373-2090. If you send a mail request, address it to the following:
Michigan Department of Transportation
425 W. Ottawa St.
Lansing, MI 48909
Contacting the DOT may not be the most efficient means at your disposal, though. Oftentimes there are long lines in-person, long hold times over the phone, and an online request can sometimes take days to process. It’s easier to use a public online database to obtain the information you need.
Public online databases are databases maintained by private companies rather than the government. They provide access to all the information that the DOT has, but they take only seconds to use rather than days. To use an online database, simply create an account with the database of your choice. Then pay any of their required fees and use their search tools to look up the license plate.
Here is a website which will allow you to look up a license plate owner for free. Using this website, you can obtain information about the vehicle’s VIN number, the driving history of the vehicle, and information about the vehicle owner by name. If you need to contact the vehicle owner, oftentimes a second search will yield contact information like a phone number or email address.
No matter what method you use, there are quick and easy ways available for you to do a search for a Michigan license plate.
